A few days ago we were treated to the release of a few screenshots of the upcoming Square Enix MMO, Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. If you missed the news and haven’t seen them yet, check out the gallery below.

Well, it seems that Director and Producer Naoki Yoshida ventured over to the beta forums to explain some things about what’s going on in the pictures and to give some context to the masses. Apparently, all three of the pictures are from three different scenarios/dungeons that players can participate in.

The first picture comes from ‘The Battle with Rhitahtyn sas Arvina from the Garlean Empire’ According to Yoshida, the image is from the latter half of the scenario and he also hints at Pet jobs being present.

The second image is of the ‘Demon Wall in Amdapor Keep’, which he describes is a difficult dungeon designed for level 50 players in groups of four. He also says that it’s “filled with things we couldn’t do in version 1.0 and you can bet it’s hard.”

The third and final screenshot is an updated version of the Garuda Battle that could be played in version 1.0. Apparently they’ve made a significant number of changes including the ARR’s battle system.

Keep in mind however that one element of the final picture is misleading. There is a DPS counter/calculator in the chat box that you can see. Yoshida clarifies that it’s for debug purposes only and players will not be able to see it.

Also, in the debug commands shown, everyone’s DPS is displayed in the log and adjustments are made based on the data we gather for how much DPS it will take to defeat an enemy in relation to the ideal DPS value. (Even I get a little excited when people start talking about checking DPS, but for the time being we don’t have any plans on adding a DPS command. Sorry about that).

Yoshida went on and revealed that the open beta that will be coming next month will feature voice acting, something that the first three phases of the beta has lacked so far. Oh and check out the bonus picture of the GM jail, a place so harsh and cruel you’re not even allowed to sit.